Management changes

[fairplay]

A little bit different, as I'm seeking opinions.

When this country became inhabited, the land was managed presumably by the slash and burn method, next came the metal axe followed by the 2 man hand saw producing a different kind of waste - saw dust.
Then comes the chainsaws and the mechanised sawing machines used by the FC.

With Slash and Burn a lot of burnt material would have accumulated favouring certain fungi, so it follows then that with modern tree removal (with the addition of chain oil for lubrication) the forest floor would have undergone a drastic change and this would affect the fungi we see today.

I have loads of books on fungi, but sadly I never am able to read them from cover to cover. Does anybody have any opinions on the issues I raise, or could they direct me to a mycology book which touches on this subject please.

Cheers,
Neil.

[fairplay]

I didn't word that very well because I had to rush off to take photos of a late pair of nightjar chicks being ringed - unfortunately one had been eaten by the time we got there.

Obviously we don't know what fungi were around at the time of the slash and burn era but it is reasonably safe to assume there was more burnt soil/wood then, than by natural means such as lightning storms, so perhaps these conditions favoured fungi which today are restricted to fire sites such as Rhizina undulata, Coprinellus angulatus, Pholiota highlandensis, Hebeloma anthracophilum, etc.

Maybe these days there are more woodchip loving fungi like Agrocybe arvalis, Agaricus subrufescens, and Buchwaldoboletus sphaerocephalus about.

Perhaps there never have been any dramatic changes to our fungal population because no records were kept that far back and fungi do not fossilise very well I should imagine so we have little way of knowing.

However, forests are certainly managed differently today than they were say, 100 years ago, even the way the wood was extracted by a team of heavy horses.
So what are your views then wabbers - do you think there have been any changes to our fungal flora ?

Neil.